Be sure to tune in TONIGHT as the major networks join forces to broadcast this "groundbreaking" show. From their website, "...Over 50 of the most renowned personalities in TV, film, sports and music will come together to make history. In an unprecedented television event, NBC, ABC, and CBS will simultaneously devote 1 hour of commercial-free prime time to raise funds for the fight against cancer."
Look who's appearing on the show: Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Meryl Streep, Christina Applegate (recently diagnosed with breast cancer), Lance Armstrong, Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, America Ferrera, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Forest Whitaker, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Fergie, Miley Cyrus (for you youngsters), Carrie Underwood and more...
www.standup2cancer.org
I've already set my Tivo.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
10 Years
Yesterday, Mike and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary - yay, us! August was a good month for us - a one year cancer anniversary and this. We had a low-key day after work with dinner at Raaz (Indian) at the Rio and then a movie. We were supposed to go to Elk Lake, PA again with friends, but something happened with them and we ended up not going so our weekend plans have shifted. We thought dinner and a movie was a nice way to celebrate after going to Maine the week before.
Maine was truly great. We drove up Saturday to Portland, ME and spent the night. We tooled around Portland on Sunday before driving up to our final destination: Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park. It's so hot down here in August and we tried to get our minds around 55 degrees at night before we left, but we still weren't ready for the fall-like weather. After finally finding a hotel in Portland, we put on warmer clothes from our shorts and headed into the historic and restaurant-heavy Old Port part of town. It was cool. We had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company on the pier. We sat outside (with our coats on) and enjoyed the live band and some local food. Mike had some lobster bisque since we were in Maine. After dinner, we wandered around taking pictures and such. We found a 6 foot section of the Berlin Wall sitting on one of the piers - I walked right by it at first and then we realized what it was. Simply amazing to see.
On the way up to Bar Harbor, we stopped in Freeport - the LL Bean "mecca". We had gone to LL Bean at midnight the night before just because we had heard they were open 24/7. I wasn't overly impressed because I thought the clothes wouldn't be as expensive as they were. I was thinking "outlet" when it wasn't. We did hit the LL Bean outlet on Sunday (a separate store that's not open 24/7) when we returned, but there wasn't anything I was interested in. However, we hit the jackpot at North Face and each bought winter coats for $40! Those coats sure came in handy the rest of the week as the temps dropped down a couple of nights that week.
Bar Harbor is great. We loved this tiny town right next to Acadia. We stayed at a B&B, a 10 minute walk from town (we didn't realize how close it was for 2 days and drove into town to hunt for parking). Our B&B was nice and quaint. The inn owner was very quirky, but his wife wasn't so bad. During our tour of the facilities, he stated that they don't usually have a tv, but they had made a special exception for the Olympics and had placed a 13" tv in the living room downstairs. Our host stated we were only to watch the Olympics and nothing else. I thought Mike was going to run out the door! "R" just had a very particular manner of him, kind of like an old-fashioned dad. For example, R offered to have coffee and tea waiting outside our room every morning but we were not to bring our mugs downstairs to the breakfast area because he would have new ones at each table. Fine. Our first morning, we selected our table and then went to the dining room area to see what coffee and teas were available. We didn't take the mug from our table because we were just looking and R instructed us not to take a new mug from the counter because we had our own at the table. He was just so particular, precise and anal. It drove us both a little crazy. We spent most of week just hoping we wouldn't run into him, but the location was great and the B&B itself was nice.
We had lots of lovely meals in Bar Harbor and a fantastic lunch overlooking the harbor in Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island. We met lots of dogs and lots of people. We attended a local improv show that was really funny. We took pictures of sunrise and sunset on Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place on the east coat where you can see the sunrise. We got up at 4:45am that day to get there. For some reason, I thought it would just be us up there but there were about 100 of our closes friends that morning to usher in the new day. I was kind of disappointed in the people talking about being loud because I think you should quietly appreciate the sunrise instead of goofing off and stuff. Maybe I'm old - or just grouchy that early in the morning. We walked across a sand bar at low tide to the neighboring island (with some of the same people who were up for the sunrise). We saw lots of little boats and quite a few yachts. We took 2 whale watch cruises because we were fogged in on the first trip and couldn't see anything past the boat. The 2nd trip was a success and we saw 3 whales! It was really cold out there - I'm glad we had our new winter coats!
We walked a 6 mile loop on one of the carriage trails in Acadia and did a little bit of trail hiking around Jordan Pond in the park. It was beautiful and peaceful. I really enjoyed the park and wish we had either brought our bikes or rented them. I also wish we had hiked a little more because it was so awesome. We stood in the rain to see "thunder hole" do some thundering when the high tide rolled in, but it was more like "burping hole". We also stuck our feet in the ice cold water on the only sand beach in Acadia (also in the rain) just to say we did it.
On our way back home, we stayed in Portland again for a couple of days. This time we walked to the Portland Observatory tower that had been built in 1807. It was used as a communication tower for the busy port as the ships sailed in and managed to survive a devastating fire in 1886 that wiped out half the city. It had great views of the city and the port. We also took a sunset ferry ride for $13 each. We saw a beautiful sunset and some of the islands off the coast. It was a nice way to complete our Maine vacation before we headed back home the next day.
Maine was truly great. We drove up Saturday to Portland, ME and spent the night. We tooled around Portland on Sunday before driving up to our final destination: Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park. It's so hot down here in August and we tried to get our minds around 55 degrees at night before we left, but we still weren't ready for the fall-like weather. After finally finding a hotel in Portland, we put on warmer clothes from our shorts and headed into the historic and restaurant-heavy Old Port part of town. It was cool. We had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company on the pier. We sat outside (with our coats on) and enjoyed the live band and some local food. Mike had some lobster bisque since we were in Maine. After dinner, we wandered around taking pictures and such. We found a 6 foot section of the Berlin Wall sitting on one of the piers - I walked right by it at first and then we realized what it was. Simply amazing to see.
On the way up to Bar Harbor, we stopped in Freeport - the LL Bean "mecca". We had gone to LL Bean at midnight the night before just because we had heard they were open 24/7. I wasn't overly impressed because I thought the clothes wouldn't be as expensive as they were. I was thinking "outlet" when it wasn't. We did hit the LL Bean outlet on Sunday (a separate store that's not open 24/7) when we returned, but there wasn't anything I was interested in. However, we hit the jackpot at North Face and each bought winter coats for $40! Those coats sure came in handy the rest of the week as the temps dropped down a couple of nights that week.
Bar Harbor is great. We loved this tiny town right next to Acadia. We stayed at a B&B, a 10 minute walk from town (we didn't realize how close it was for 2 days and drove into town to hunt for parking). Our B&B was nice and quaint. The inn owner was very quirky, but his wife wasn't so bad. During our tour of the facilities, he stated that they don't usually have a tv, but they had made a special exception for the Olympics and had placed a 13" tv in the living room downstairs. Our host stated we were only to watch the Olympics and nothing else. I thought Mike was going to run out the door! "R" just had a very particular manner of him, kind of like an old-fashioned dad. For example, R offered to have coffee and tea waiting outside our room every morning but we were not to bring our mugs downstairs to the breakfast area because he would have new ones at each table. Fine. Our first morning, we selected our table and then went to the dining room area to see what coffee and teas were available. We didn't take the mug from our table because we were just looking and R instructed us not to take a new mug from the counter because we had our own at the table. He was just so particular, precise and anal. It drove us both a little crazy. We spent most of week just hoping we wouldn't run into him, but the location was great and the B&B itself was nice.
We had lots of lovely meals in Bar Harbor and a fantastic lunch overlooking the harbor in Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island. We met lots of dogs and lots of people. We attended a local improv show that was really funny. We took pictures of sunrise and sunset on Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place on the east coat where you can see the sunrise. We got up at 4:45am that day to get there. For some reason, I thought it would just be us up there but there were about 100 of our closes friends that morning to usher in the new day. I was kind of disappointed in the people talking about being loud because I think you should quietly appreciate the sunrise instead of goofing off and stuff. Maybe I'm old - or just grouchy that early in the morning. We walked across a sand bar at low tide to the neighboring island (with some of the same people who were up for the sunrise). We saw lots of little boats and quite a few yachts. We took 2 whale watch cruises because we were fogged in on the first trip and couldn't see anything past the boat. The 2nd trip was a success and we saw 3 whales! It was really cold out there - I'm glad we had our new winter coats!
We walked a 6 mile loop on one of the carriage trails in Acadia and did a little bit of trail hiking around Jordan Pond in the park. It was beautiful and peaceful. I really enjoyed the park and wish we had either brought our bikes or rented them. I also wish we had hiked a little more because it was so awesome. We stood in the rain to see "thunder hole" do some thundering when the high tide rolled in, but it was more like "burping hole". We also stuck our feet in the ice cold water on the only sand beach in Acadia (also in the rain) just to say we did it.
On our way back home, we stayed in Portland again for a couple of days. This time we walked to the Portland Observatory tower that had been built in 1807. It was used as a communication tower for the busy port as the ships sailed in and managed to survive a devastating fire in 1886 that wiped out half the city. It had great views of the city and the port. We also took a sunset ferry ride for $13 each. We saw a beautiful sunset and some of the islands off the coast. It was a nice way to complete our Maine vacation before we headed back home the next day.
Friday, August 8, 2008
I'm Alright!
It has been a LONG day, but I'm finally home and still CANCER FREE on my one year anniversary. Everything basically went well (but YOWZA did that first IV stick hurt like $*&#$&*)$). She did much better on the second try but it was too late, I got light-headed and had to sit in the chair until I could get up to walk out of the room. They scared my a bit before they told me the good news. I had just told Mike my theory that if just Dr. Dunleavy came into the room, everything was good. If the team came into the room, not so good news. Moments later, in walked my NP, Dr. Wilson (THE GUY), and another colleague. Dr. Wilson relayed the news so nonchalantly that I almost didn't catch what he said. He also said the scar tissue has shrunk even more since last time. Then they said, "See you in December." Great to hear it and relieved it's over.
Once I heard the good news, I kept picturing that dancing groundhog from Caddyshack with Kenny Loggins singing, "I'm Alright." I felt like boogying right alongside Mr. Groundhog. I was even going to try to post a picture of the cute little guy, but it's late and I'm going to bed.
Since I left NIH, I've spent a lot of time in the car between driving to Bethesda, home, National airport, Arlington (happy hour), Rockville (shopping because they lost my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's suitcase), back home, Rockville again (dinner), National airport (to pick up my mother-in-law), Iwo Jima monument in Rosslyn, the airport (they lost my mother-in-law's suitcase too). In the end, we recovered all suitcases and just arrived home at midnight. Whew, I am so ready for bed but I wanted to post the news before I got a bunch of frantic calls tomorrow that I couldn't answer because we'll be on the boat.
Once I heard the good news, I kept picturing that dancing groundhog from Caddyshack with Kenny Loggins singing, "I'm Alright." I felt like boogying right alongside Mr. Groundhog. I was even going to try to post a picture of the cute little guy, but it's late and I'm going to bed.
Since I left NIH, I've spent a lot of time in the car between driving to Bethesda, home, National airport, Arlington (happy hour), Rockville (shopping because they lost my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's suitcase), back home, Rockville again (dinner), National airport (to pick up my mother-in-law), Iwo Jima monument in Rosslyn, the airport (they lost my mother-in-law's suitcase too). In the end, we recovered all suitcases and just arrived home at midnight. Whew, I am so ready for bed but I wanted to post the news before I got a bunch of frantic calls tomorrow that I couldn't answer because we'll be on the boat.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Jitters
Tomorrow is my 1-year check-up (although the actual “anniversary” date is August 16). I moved up my appointment from next week to tomorrow since my mother- and brother-in-law are visiting this weekend and we want to celebrate the good news with them. I’m glad now that I moved up my appointment because I won’t have to worry for another week about the test results. This week is nerve-wracking because I think every little thing is the return of Priscilla. I had severe itching the other day, which worried me until I remembered we had eaten dinner on the deck the night before and it was simply mosquito bites. I was having trouble breathing in the car and then I realized it was at least 95 degrees with high humidity and the AC hadn’t kicked in yet. I’ll know tomorrow that everything’s okay and then I’ll breathe a sigh of relief…until I go back in 4 months for my next CT!
Light the Night Honored Walker. On July 31, I was honored with 7 other blood cancer survivors at the Washington Nationals game. The LLS invited us to attend the Light the Night kick-off on the roof-top of a parking garage next to the stadium. The honored walkers were showered with attention from the moment we arrived. I sat up front at a reserved table with my teammates: Mike, Melissa, Mom & Dad at a reserved table. I received a special “honored walker t-shirt” and a MLB baseball. 2 Nationals players took time out before the game to come up to our roof-top party and talk about the National’s support for the Light the Night walk.
LLS introduced each honored walker and we were allowed to say a few words to the crowd. The cutest was 5 year old survivor, Meghan, who waved and said, “hello”. Another survivor, 3 year-old Alexis wore an adorable home-made Nationals baseball dress and a pink Nationals baseball cap with “Cancer sucks” embroidered on the back. I read her story and this little girl was diagnosed with leukemia when she was just 11 months old. She had a grueling battle, but on this night she smiled and enjoyed the moment.
Before the game started, the honored walkers were escorted all the way down to the field where we would be presented in front of the crowd! This is my 3rd Nats game. I started off in the owner’s box, moved down to the diamond level behind home plate, and now I was standing on the field. Mike says I’m spoiled for sure! Little Alexis played in the dirt, drawing wonderful pictures in the dirt until it was time for the camera shot. Her dad video taped her playing and all of us waiting for our moment, which he plans to place on youtube. Then we were moved out onto the actual field, something I thought wouldn’t happen because I know how much the groundskeeper monitors the grass! I was surprised again when the announcer introduced me as the honored walker from Montgomery County. Unfortunately, Mike didn’t see me on the jumbo-tron because my parents chose that moment to walk up to their seats and chat with Mike and Melissa. LLS had a photographer so I hope she snapped some great pictures.
Light the Night Honored Walker. On July 31, I was honored with 7 other blood cancer survivors at the Washington Nationals game. The LLS invited us to attend the Light the Night kick-off on the roof-top of a parking garage next to the stadium. The honored walkers were showered with attention from the moment we arrived. I sat up front at a reserved table with my teammates: Mike, Melissa, Mom & Dad at a reserved table. I received a special “honored walker t-shirt” and a MLB baseball. 2 Nationals players took time out before the game to come up to our roof-top party and talk about the National’s support for the Light the Night walk.
LLS introduced each honored walker and we were allowed to say a few words to the crowd. The cutest was 5 year old survivor, Meghan, who waved and said, “hello”. Another survivor, 3 year-old Alexis wore an adorable home-made Nationals baseball dress and a pink Nationals baseball cap with “Cancer sucks” embroidered on the back. I read her story and this little girl was diagnosed with leukemia when she was just 11 months old. She had a grueling battle, but on this night she smiled and enjoyed the moment.
Before the game started, the honored walkers were escorted all the way down to the field where we would be presented in front of the crowd! This is my 3rd Nats game. I started off in the owner’s box, moved down to the diamond level behind home plate, and now I was standing on the field. Mike says I’m spoiled for sure! Little Alexis played in the dirt, drawing wonderful pictures in the dirt until it was time for the camera shot. Her dad video taped her playing and all of us waiting for our moment, which he plans to place on youtube. Then we were moved out onto the actual field, something I thought wouldn’t happen because I know how much the groundskeeper monitors the grass! I was surprised again when the announcer introduced me as the honored walker from Montgomery County. Unfortunately, Mike didn’t see me on the jumbo-tron because my parents chose that moment to walk up to their seats and chat with Mike and Melissa. LLS had a photographer so I hope she snapped some great pictures.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
VICTORY is MINE
Much like the name of this blog, I was victorious on water skis this past weekend at Elk Lake in Pennsylvania. Our friends, Theresa and Paul invited us to Paul's dad's house on the lake (more like Mike begged them to take us). We forgot my bungee cord training guide, but I didn't need it after all. On Saturday, I managed to get up a few short times but then I couldn't stand up again. Paul's advice, "no thinking" really helped. I channeled my "inner blond" and put all thoughts out of my head and it worked! After that, though, I started thinking again and gravity pulled its tricks on me and I couldn't get up again. Sunday, however, was the day when I conquered my skis and not only stood up, but I went around the lake twice in one try!!! I couldn't stop grinning and giggling over being up on the water. It was thrilling and a little scary at the same time. I managed to bend my knees a little, but Paul said I was a little wooden on the skis. Next time, I'm going to try shifting my weight. We'll see how it goes. I am just so excited. Take that, you young whippersnappers who don't try new things. I did it!
The lake and the houses on it are so cute. They remind me of the cottages from Dirty Dancing. I half expected Baby and Johnny to come walking by with a watermelon. I felt like I was transported back in time to a simpler life. The Elk Lake community is very close and they had a field day Saturday and fishing derby on Sunday. We participated in the "covered dish" dinner on Saturday with Theresa and Paul and "helped" them bring two covered dishes to share. After dinner, we competed in the egg toss - with raw eggs. We did better than I thought we would, and came in third place after our egg exploded all over my arms, legs, and clothes. Somehow, I knew when we started that I would be the one with egg all over. Next time, I am bringing an apron, goggles, and a helmet - just in case!
Mike learned to wakeboard a couple of years ago in Texas and has loved it ever since. He just jumps right up and goes. He always looks so serious when he's wakeboarding and every once in a while he'll crack a smile, so Theresa and I teased him about it. Meanwhile, Paul has a whole routine when he wakeboards: he gets up, tucks the rope under one arm, wipes the water off his face, tousles his hair, tugs on his swim trunks, and checks his life jacket. Every time. Plus, he just grins while he wakeboards. We told Mike he needs to smile more - so he started smiling a little more plus he imitated Paul by tousling his hair too. That made us giggle.
It was a fantastic weekend. We had a great time. It almost made me forget that my one year checkup is NEXT WEEK. That's right - next Thursday. My actual anniversary date is August 15, but it's so close that I'll just celebrate on the 7th and again on the 15th. I'll be grumbling a bit next week because my appointment is at 11:30 and knowing how things go, I won't be done until 1pm and that means I won't be able to EAT until 1pm. Sigh. I'll be clutching my chocolate croissant until the moment I can finally eat and enjoy it. It's been a much better year so far than where I was almost 365 days ago. I can definitely count my blessings multiple times over.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Water Ski - Me?
Yes, I managed to (briefly) get up on skis this past weekend at Smith Mountain Lake! After many, many tries on Saturday and Sunday I finally stood up for several long seconds - the longest time I have been up on skis. It was awesome, it was thrilling, it was cool. I used Mike's "bungee cord method" (I wrap a bungee cord around my knees to keep me from doing a spread eagle face plant in the water) and it finally worked. I lost three bungee cords in the process, but managed to keep the last one the longest. I swallowed a lot of lake water and got plenty up my nose (now, there's a visual!) but I DID IT!! I talked to myself a lot out there saying stuff like, "I kicked cancer's butt and this is not as tough, so just do it already!" It didn't work too often, but when I least expected it, I was standing up on the water. Once I was up, I had a whole new set of problems to think about like figuring out how to balance myself. Alas, it didn't last long and I couldn't figure out how to do it again but I'm really close to having a longer run. We're going to another lake in PA this weekend with other friends and I'm going to try again and again until I am successful because it was FUN.
Getting older seems to be working for me. I took up rock climbing a couple of years ago and this year, I'm working on water skiing. Life is good.
Getting older seems to be working for me. I took up rock climbing a couple of years ago and this year, I'm working on water skiing. Life is good.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy FOREth!
It's the Fourth of July and the AT&T PGA National Golf tournament is in town at Congressional Country Club. The Tiger Woods Foundation put the call out to lots of local community service groups asking for volunteers to work the tournament and the Jaycees jumped at the chance. Well, actually Mike jumped at the chance since Tiger was supposed to play this weekend. However, as you know Tiger injured himself several weeks ago and he's not allowed to play. We signed up to volunteer anyway to make some money for the chapter. We were the only Jaycees there today but we worked with the Kiwanis and some people from CASA. We were stationed in a nice tent near the 11th green and we sold sodas, water, hot dogs, brats, and some other goodies. It was a sunny hot day for most of the day and we had some pretty decent crowds, which makes the day go by much faster. After our shift was over we walked around to see some of the golfers. I don't know many of them, but we saw KJ Choi, Davis Love III, and local boy Fred Funk. I also saw some nice, young, cute golfers who were certainly nice to look at! We go back Sunday to work the tent with several more Jaycees. Sunday is the big golfing day so it should be pretty exciting.
Now we're going out to hopefully watch some fireworks - if it stops raining. Happy fourth, America!
Now we're going out to hopefully watch some fireworks - if it stops raining. Happy fourth, America!
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